Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for September 27, 2012

How the heck did I miss that being her kid?

pay attention i knew from way back!

Pop has a perfect grasp of things.

Kid has all the important parts.

Ugh! Mary Lou’s overly-sensitive, ‘new agey’ assumption of what her daughter ‘understands’ is sooooo overly-analytical. Why do parents think their kids don’t really know anything??? They HEAR and SEE much of what parents don’t want them to hear and see. Don’t blow it, Mary Lou. (eye-roll)

Gus is facing the empty nest. In the rush and excitement of getting married, young folks might not stop to think what it means to their parents. And even if they do, they can’t fully understand it till they’ve lived it. Every beginning is an ending. It looks like Mary Lou is considerate of how momentous this is to her father as well as to herself and Meg. I hope Gus isn’t feeling too down about the changes. ( We have relatives whose children and grandchild are living with them while they renovate their new house. Grampa says the kids are free to leave, but the grandbaby is staying with them!)

Second time it’s been mentioned that they’re now starting their life as a family.

I didn’t realise Mary Lou and Meg didn’t already live with Gene…

Where has he been staying, while the farm was a work in progress and the boat was already sold to his parents, if not with them at Gus’ place?

It’s been made pretty clear that he and Mary Lou haven’t been waiting for their wedding night to be together …. and I haven’t seen any indication that they were hiding it from Meg, or that she hasn’t been part of the arrangement.So this seems more about distance than family…. which of course is still hard for Gus.

CofyJunky — Mary Lou is trying to comfort her Dad, grabbing at an excuse for Meg’s blitheness at leaving.

“Oh, you know kids..”

It’s not really some deep analysis of what she thinks Meg actually understands.

this would probably be the wrong time to play the song “down at the doc of the bay” lol

Is it just me, or has Gus aged?

Gus is about to no longer exist on a regular basis, as I predicted months ago, as the strip is wound down by JJ, the restaurant will be either given to the kids to run, sold outright or lost in a tragic fire, possibly taking Gus with it one way or another. Or Gus will just retire and no longer be a major player, Arlo and Janis will sail into the sunset on their boat.

With all of the latest trend of locally grown and sustainable ingredients being used by restaurants, it could be the ties between the farm and the restaurant will be very strong. Remembering how it was for me when I was courting my wife, I doubt the farm is that far away from Gus’s place.

@ScullyUFOI also was going to comment on Gus’s older appearance. He looks about 80 in this strip. Of course, the aqua-blue leisure suit and Mr. Magoo glasses might have something to do with it.

Gus is Mary Lou’s grandfather, not father. That’s why he looks so old—-he IS old.

Fact Check: Is Mary Lou Gus’s Daughter? That would be a reason for her tears.

In a July 2010 strip, Mary Lou tells Gene that Gus married her step-mother, so I guess that makes him her step-step-father?

@Dave53—-LOL! Apparently I need a genealogy chart :)

This is one of my most favorite comic strips.

Thanks to today’s commentators. Arlo and Janis has by far some of the most obscure individual strips of any of the comics I read. I can always count on the commenters to provide background and varying viewpoints, making a many-layered palimpsest* that sheds light on the meaning.

“something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface” – Second meaning, Merriam-Webster.com/dictionary

Thanks for the word of the day. I knew yesterday’s(?) word (defenestrate, Pearls Before Swine) but not that one.

Gene’s been living at the farm while he fixes it up. Mary Lou and Meg have been living with Gus. In a comic from last year, Gene told Janis that he and Mary Lou weren’t going to live together because of Meg.

September 2, 2011 to be exact.